Unified Finance & Operations for a Multi-Property Hotel Group — Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP Implementation (Hospitality)

About

Our client is a multi-brand hotel group operating full-service, select-service, and resort properties across North America and the Caribbean. The organization manages owned, leased, and franchised assets with centralized finance but property-level operations. Prior systems included an aging on-premises accounting package, property-specific spreadsheets, and a patchwork of integrations from the property management system (PMS), point-of-sale (POS), and channel tools.

Challenge

The group needed to modernize its back office, standardize processes across properties, and gain real-time visibility without disrupting the guest experience.

  • Fragmented data & slow close: Revenue, AP, and payroll feeds arrived in inconsistent formats; month-end close averaged 12 business days.
  • Limited multi-entity control: Intercompany, multi-currency, and franchise management were manual and error-prone.
  • Procurement leakage: Property-level purchasing bypassed negotiated contracts; inventory counts were inconsistent.
  • Integration complexity: Night audit journals, POS sales, and folio adjustments from the PMS required handoffs and rekeying.
  • Reporting blind spots: Corporate lacked a consolidated P&L by property/brand, and owners lacked timely dashboards.

These pain points are common in hospitality ERP programs that unify finance with PMS/POS and guest systems on Microsoft’s cloud stack. Microsoft’s reference architectures for travel & hospitality and industry case stories illustrate similar needs around multi-system integration, standardization, and real-time analytics.

Objectives

1. Deploy a cloud ERP foundation with standard chart of accounts and property/brand dimensions.
2. Automate ingestion of PMS night audit, POS, and bank transactions; eliminate rekeying.
3. Stand up centralized procurement & inventory with approval workflows.
4. Deliver Power BI dashboards for daily revenue, labor, and owner reporting.
5. Cut month-end close time by 50%+ and reduce off-contract spend.

Quantilus Approach

Phase 1 — Blueprint & Pilot (16 weeks)

  • Discovery & fit-gap: Property walk-throughs, night audit shadowing, data lineage mapping from PMS/POS to GL.
  • Target operating model: Standard COA, dimensions (Property, Brand, Department, Outlet), and intercompany policy.
  • Integration architecture (“hub-and-spoke”): Azure Integration Services to normalize PMS/POS feeds; near-real-time APIs for high-volume outlets; nightly batch for folio postings. This aligns with modern hospitality integration patterns favoring cloud PMS hubs + open APIs.  
  • Pilot scope: 6 properties across 2 brands; core finance, procurement, inventory, and fixed assets.

 

Phase 2 — Scale-out (7 months, rolling waves)

  • Regional rollouts of 50+ properties.
  • Add HR/payroll feeds, bank statement automation, owner statements, CapEx projects, and budget planning.
  • Establish a Center of Excellence (CoE) for enhancements and release management.

The Solution

Platform

  • Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management for multi-entity GL, AP/AR, fixed assets, procurement, inventory, and project accounting.
  • Power Platform for mobile approvals and exception handling; Power BI for dashboards and owner reporting.
  • Azure Integration Services (Service Bus, Logic Apps, Functions) for PMS/POS/channel/payroll connectors.

Key Integrations

  • PMS: Night audit revenue, taxes/fees, adjustments, and deposit liabilities automated into subledgers/GL. Modern cloud PMS platforms and partner ecosystems support this approach.
  • POS & outlets: Restaurant, bar, spa, and gift retail via hospitality POS integrated to ERP; support for unified commerce scenarios that hotels often run with Dynamics-aligned stacks.
  • Banking & payments: Automated bank statement ingestion and reconciliation.
  • Payroll/HRIS: Labor cost journals by property/department.
  • Vendors & eProcurement: Catalogs, 3-way match, and contract pricing.

Process Design Highlights

  • Night audit automation: Map PMS revenue buckets to COA; auto-post recurring journals; exception queue in Power Apps.
  • Multi-entity accounting: Intercompany services and franchise fees with automated eliminations.
  • Centralized procurement: Blanket POs, budget controls, inventory cycle counts, vendor scorecards.
  • Owner & brand reporting: Daily flash (occupancy, ADR, RevPAR), P&L by property/brand, F&B margin analytics in Power BI.

Results & Impact

After full rollout, the hotel group realized:

  1. Close time: Reduced from 12 to 5 business days through automation and standardized journals.
  2. AP efficiency: 50% fewer manual touchpoints; invoice cycle time down 43% with OCR + approvals.
  3. Spend control: 18% reduction in off-contract purchases; improved price compliance on key categories.
  4. Data visibility: Real-time dashboards for corporate, property GMs, and owners; faster variance analysis.
  5. IT overhead: Legacy servers decommissioned; upgrades and security handled by cloud services.

What We Delivered

  • Dynamics 365 ERP configured for multi-entity hospitality operations
  • Azure-based integration hub connecting PMS, POS, payroll, and banking feeds
  • Power BI model + dashboards (Daily Flash, P&L by property/brand, AP aging, inventory turns)
  • Standard COA, operating procedures, and training content for finance & property teams
  • Data migration (5 years of history), test automation, and a CoE playbook

Why Quantilus

  • Industry-aware architecture: Designed specifically for hotel data and integration patterns (night audit, folios, outlets).  
  • Proven hospitality integrations: Approach aligned with PMS/POS cloud ecosystems and Dynamics-compatible hospitality stacks.
  • Change management first: On-property training, role-based workspaces, and mobile approvals to drive adoption—consistent with hospitality case studies that emphasize simpler, cloud-based processes.  

Tech Stack

ERP: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management (or Business Central for smaller portfolios) Analytics: Power BI with Azure SQL / Dataverse. Integrations: Azure Service Bus, Logic Apps, Functions; API & SFTP connectors to PMS, POS, payroll, and banks. Automation: Power Automate (approvals, exceptions), OCR for AP

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